This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/425,853, filed Feb. 6, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,971,706, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/992,915, filed Jan. 11, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,563,578, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/673,808, filed Mar. 30, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,235,476, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/953,447, filed Jul. 29, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,996,831, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/886,757, filed Sep. 21, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,504,758, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Although some storage systems support the storing of multiple versions of a file, they typically do not provide version-aware operations other than those used to support fairly simple backup and recovery services. In general, currently available storage services, and their underlying storage systems, do not support other use models that may require more access to, and/or control over, multiple versions of a file or other stored data.
Online and other remote data storage services have become widely available in recent years. In a typical model, a storage service may provide storage for backup data, which may be retrieved in the event of a hardware failure, an accidental deletion of data, or data loss as a result of a security breach or other malicious act. Storage services may also provide long-term remote storage for archival or historical purposes.
While the technology described herein is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.